Perception vs. Reality: What I observed during my 21 days in Khartoum
By Deng Malueth Nyang, Juba, South Sudan
October 14, 2016 (SSB) — I took a trip to Khartoum on 11th September 2016 and the trip coincided with Eid Al Adha holidays so I spent almost 5 days at home. What impressed me is the way Sudanese still treat South Sudanese. I thought the perception of ordinary Sudanese towards South Sudanese has changed after independence but my perception was wrong, the ordinary Sudanese still consider us as brothers and sisters.
The apartment in which I resided all the residents gathered into my room after conducting the Eid Al Adha prayers and greeted everyone inside/present. We exchanged pleasantries and had a gist about various things with them and when they learnt that we are Christians, they asked my wife not to cook during the holidays.
This reminded me of hospitality and generosity of Sudanese which is not found in any country except South Sudan. During my short stay I received several invitation calls from my Sudanese colleagues with whom we attended school and work in different states for either breakfast or dinner of which I only honored a few that my schedule could permit.
In Riyad, the area I resided, there were minimal South Sudanese except casual workers and I intended for my stay to be so in order to relax. As you know, the July incident left many traumatized and this was a chance for me to forget about what had happened though the marks of a bruised Nation remain unforgettable.
In the evening hours I seized the opportunity to visit to casual workers within my vicinity for a chat. I asked them many questions (social and political) and all their responses were positive. Politically, all those I interacted with desired peace so they can return back to South Sudan.
During my stay in Khartoum, two reports were released, one on the corruption on South Sudan (the Sentry Report) and the other on the use of chemical weapons in Darfur. I will not comment on the first report because anyone who read it can conclude it’s a biased and fabricated report cooked by people with malicious intents on South Sudan. As far as the second one is concerned, I saw the pictures on BBC and I cannot confirm or deny the findings but with thorough investigations proof will be sought.
What I want to arrive at is between the ways our foreign ministry and the Sudan foreign ministry reacts to issues. When the later report was released the foreign minister of Sudan immediately conducted the interview denying the findings in which he referred to as baseless while in our country this rarely happens. You cannot hear any statement from foreign minister denying or confirming any report against South Sudan.
Pardon my views on how our ministry is conducted but this is the truth everyone has been saying, our ministry is not performing as the other foreign ministries in the world are performing. For instance, just of resent when Dr. Riak was airlifted to Congo by UN, our Ambassador to Congo didn’t make any statement.
I visited the South Sudanese Embassy in Khartoum on 20th September, 2016 and the reason was to extend my greetings to colleagues who are working there and also to know how the staff are fairing on with their work but unfortunately instead of being briefed on official business, the staff dwelled on private issues and that was the personal issue which the Ambassador was involved in. I tried to meet the Ambassador in order to get concrete information about the story but my efforts were in vain.
After Eid Al Adha, I went to Khartoum Town where I met many South Sudanese. I avoided the use of public transport fearing that I may be provoked or harassed by any Sudanese as I was informed, however after two days I decided to use public transport to prove what I was told was a misinformation. The passengers whom I boarded a bus with treated me well and none seemed provocative or tried to harass me till I returned to South Sudan.
I toured many residential areas in Khartoum to know how South Sudanese are living and I found out that most of the families depend majorly on the income earned by their wives who work as servants or housekeepers in Arabs houses. It was heartbreaking when my colleagues with whom we studied together in University told me of their shortcomings, they said they are depending on their wives earnings whose only source of income is selling tea or being house servants.
Though in my observation I could tell all South Sudanese especially educated people still appreciate themselves like in the old days. I met many South Sudanese from different ethics and we joyfully interacted, eat together and exchanged our different views. In our discussions, it was conclusive that South Sudan is in dire need of peace and this should happen in such a way that power is transferred through democratic elections.
We all believe that since South Sudan is composed of many tribes it is then impossible for any person from any tribe to take power by force even if he/she is from the same ethnic background.
I also observed that you can rarely spot UN vehicles (UN Mission in Darfur) in the town unlike Juba in whereby every second you see convoys of UNMISS vehicles. The difference is that South Sudanese have given unlimited freedom to NGOs including UNMISS. In Sudan, a register NGO in a particular state cannot move to any state without permission from the Humanitarian Affairs and National Security.
My curiosity was cut short when one of my colleague who works for UNMID told me that no UN plate vehicle can move from village to village without a permit of the government authorities. Back in South Sudan when government requested NGOs to get permission for any area they intended to visit, they wail and say their movement have been restricted, restrictions are imposed by security authorities against their activities.
It will be of great importance for NGOs to tell South Sudanese which country on earth has allowed them to operate freely without regulations. These NGOs, most especially UNMISS are the ones inciting violence in South Sudan.
UNMISS has been inciting communities against the government, they tell communities to fight the government and when defeated UNMISS camps are opened for their protection and feeding. To add some weight on my point, this was done in greater Upper Nile and now the same despicable act is being done in Greater Equatoria.
It seems that the personnel who are working in those NGOs are blinded, they don’t see what is happening in Syria, Iraq, Burundi, DRC, Congo etc. how can Zeid Raad al Hussein, the UN High Commission for Human Rights rate the human rights situation in South Sudan as the horrendous in the world, does she watch CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and CCTV? If she does, at what percentage can she rate the human right situation in those countries?
Any way since the term of South Korean guy Mr. Ban Ki Moon is coming to an end we expect that his successor (New UN Secretary General) who was announced yesterday will change the way in which the mission is being run is South Sudan.
NGOs in South Sudan conduct businesses, they import cars, food items, electronic devices etc. and sell them to foreign business people and all those products are exempted. Have you ever had of an NGO whose programme has culminated has handed its properties such as vehicles, motor bikes, bicycles etc. to the government?
I ponder on the thought of whether the body that is in charge of NGOs has regularly been checking the duration of NGOs assets because back then when I was rendering my services in Khartoum for one of the NGOs, we were requested to surrender two of our vehicles to Humanitarian Affairs because their duration had finished and despite the fact that they were still new we complied with the order.
It beats my understanding whether this system exists in South Sudan or not. I wish I could have authority in UN to allow me transfer Special Representative of UN to South Sudan Mrs. Ellen Margret to Sudan to work for a period of three months to witness the difference in governance between the two countries.
I want to remind my South Sudanese countrymen that peace keeping force has never been a solution in any country and it will never be a solution to South Sudan’s conflict unless South Sudanese citizens and their government agree to bring peace. To emphasize on this point, I conducted simple random survey on thirty students from different ethnic groups at Comboni College in Khartoum and one of the simple question I asked was, “do you think the 4,000 regional troops that are to be sent to Juba will bring peace to the country?”
Their answers was no by 100%, they said it does not matter how many troops are sent unless the people are engaged and listened to. According to them, the history make this clear, Iraq, CAR, Somalia, Libya should collectively act as historical light that guide our feet as we tread in the paths of history. So many of the people I interacted with want peace including students who work as shoe shiners in the morning and study in the evening.
Therefore, I beg for our leaders and especially those who rebelled against the government to come to their common sense and dialogue with the government to bring peace into our country, the regional countries and world at large will never bring peace to us, see what is happening in Syria, who is dying now, it is the Syrian citizens not any Russian or American but because of their interest they are happy with that situation.
Do you want us to reach that situation? The answer is a big NO, peace……peace……….peace is the only way forward.
Deng Malueth can be reached at dmalueth15@gmail.com
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